Quebec

During my trip, I didn't go only to the wilderness, I also visited the city of Quebec.

When I lived in France, I talked with different French people about Quebec and the city of Quebec. I am sure you know that French Canada is the favorite destination when a Frenchman dreams about his future hypothetical life. For the French, the province of Quebec is like a symphony, where the name of the maestro is "Freedom in North America"... All the French see Quebec city as an American French city.

When I talk with an American about Quebec city, I always get the same reply, ''Ho it's so perfect, so cute, so European, you feel like you are in France''. Maybe it's me, but I hear the same symphony but with another maestro... very strange.

So, now I will be the judge... American or European ?

The language : the language is French or almost French. You must understand, some French are at war with some Canadians. Who speaks better French ? Who uses more English terms ? If you ask me what I think, I will tell you ''I don't care''. It's not a competition, and I don't think one is better than the other. (But for the score card , the point is for France.)

The food : when I lived in France, all my friends told me : "if you want something good, tell us, and we will send it by mail.'' Ok, sometimes, the TV cooking shows are a little strange (I use this word to be polite, but I think "scary" would be better...). However I have eaten in many different places in the US, and trust me I have eaten very well. Ok not everywhere. Perhaps I will lose friends, but with regard to food, North Carolina is not my best memory. New York, Boston, San Fransisco, San Diego, Key Largo, Miami, Philadelphia and New Haven did not give me an allergic reaction, I could say I ate very well and even found croissants tastier than those in France. As in the US, Quebec is a melting pot for different food civilizations. One specialty, '' la poutine'', is French fries, swimming in a brown sauce with melted cheese on top (but I am not sure the word cheese would be used in France for this)... It is "interesting" (I do not have another word). I do have a name for this : D.I.A, Directly In your Ass. Be careful with "la poutine", it could be dangerous for your health. My stomach still remembers it. So for food, the point goes to the US.

After some considerations, I realized it is strange to try something from one country in another country. Quebec is not American, it is not French, it is Canadian... just Canadian.

Like all cities, I think, it is more beautiful during the night. Enjoy...

Homage

I want to introduce you to someone who is very important to me.

She made me who  I am. All my qualities come from her, and my flaws from... my self ! She had a wonderful sense of humor and loved teasing every body but especially me ! My passion for making funny faces comes from her. At home she loved to get a reaction from her parents by sticking her thumbs up her nose and putting out her tongue. She also taught me to eat fruit and sea food without my fingers ! She was desperately frustrated by my English. She loved western, thriller and romantic movies (nobody's perfect).

She passed away 15 years ago today, but ''her memory is my soul''.

Thank you mum, I miss you. I hope you like my pictures, and if you don't like them call me, and at the same time you can give me your secret recipe for the cabbage...

The lord of the rings

I discovered something very incredible, amazing, fantastic... Snow mobiles are elfs or have elf blood inside... I noticed this during my trip to the Canadian wilderness. We were with my guide in the middle of nowhere, or to be more precise, the only place where nobody ever comes during winter (except one crazy frenchman and his guide).

We were in a BIG 4 by 4, on a trail, with the snow mobiles on the trailer behind. For me the snow mobiles were there only in case of a problem with the car... This was my first mistake. My second mistake was to believe that the snow shoes on the the snow mobile mobiles were just in case also.... The reality was different. One trail, three "ways'', one after the other...

The snow became deeper, my guide stopped the car. I had imagined that we could go by car to our final destination. When my guide understood my missunderstanding, he laughed heartily for a long time. For me the idea of using the snow mobiles was cool, it would be a real adventure. "It was cool" for approximately one second. To be exact, the time it took me to put on my hat and gloves. The cool part stopped as soon as I opened the car door.... Perhaps the 4 by 4 would be more confortable...

I am ready, I take my backpack with my cameras and my lenses, and like a horse, I ride my snow mobile. The first 15 minutes erase the sensation of extreme cold, because it was such fun. The next 2 hours have the same effect.... because it is so hard and physical. I think my arms are turning to stone, not because I am becoming stronger, but because it is so painful.

The good thing is when my guide stops his engine. I know I have arrived (my arms know nothing, they are dead). I stand up, and leave my engine to walk. But I can't walk. I go one step and ''wumph !!!!" One meter of powdery snow. To this day, I still do not understand why my snow mobile stayed above the powder.... Here is my proof, "snow mobiles are elfs or have elf blood inside", they stay on top of the deep snow like an elf in ''The lord of the Rings".

I ask my guide, ''Ok why are we here ? where is it ?'' His answer is the same sound as the opening of the gates of Hell...''One hour and a half by snow shoes...." One hour and a half on a wild, non-existant trail, in the middle of a forest, where tourists do not come... I am a diver, not a snow shoes walker... It is so difficult, but but but, the panaroma is perfect !

Rivers, waterfalls, forest... My guide is a very optimistic and reassuring person. He tells me this : "If you fall in the river, I will pull you out... in the spring !!!". With the current and the ice nobody could save you. Welcome to the Canadian wilderness. I love, really love the wildlife, it's almost a part of me, but, my arms are dead, my legs are dead, I am wet, I am cold and tired... At this point, I think I could burn an ecologist from the Copenhagen climate summit.

Let me share with you some pictures of this day, and enjoy them, because during my trip, it's the only day with a blue sky.

Antartica

I came back from the wilds of Canada last weekend with many images in my head but more importantly more pictures in my camera... During my trip, I came across the cousins of wolves ; huskies and malamutes.

I had an appointment with the musher at 8.00 am, to see how he prepared his dogs for the sled. The first surprising thing is the size of the dog's team. It contains 40 dogs! I arrived at the trail just before the dogs' run, and in the middle of the trail, one big dog was curious to discover who was coming. I didn't know if I should greet this dog like a big puppy or like a wolf. I felt like a turkey during Thanksgiving day.

So, it was 8.00 am, the snow was falling, the temperature was verrrrrry cold, -35°c and adding in the wind factor, it was almost -42°c (-43.63°Fahrenheit). I had on many layers, a big coat, hat, two socks per foot, and gloveSSS. First hypotesis, the musher is the Yeti's brother. Big beard, big shoes, big hands, very big hands without gloves. If you saw me, you could see only my eyes, and to be exact, you could see only one eye. All my friends know that I do not fear the cold, but this morning was extremely hard to bear. Yet I watched this guy take care of the dogs like it was a spring day. Second hypothesis, the musher is a werewolf, and leads the pack like an alpha male. He spoke many strange words to these dogs...

More seriously, he explained the difference between the breeds of snow dogs, explained his life, without any vacation or days off, because he is the alpha male of his pack and he cannot ask another person to take care of his dogs... His life is at the same time beautiful, hard, and difficult...

Thank you for sharing your dream with me...

Miracle on 34th street

This is the end of the year, holiday, vacation, christmas trees, gifts, chrismas carol being played in the shops or at sung at your door...

So it's the perfect time for me to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Looking forward to see you here in two weeks, where you will be able to read the news after I'm back from my adventures in the north of Canada.

Amadeus

Perhaps one day, I will write a book, "How to become friends with your neighbors". But this title would be ironic.

At Thanksgiving I met two musicians at a friend's house . They are students at "The Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University", and at the end of the evening, we made an appointment for a photo session at my studio in my apartment.

American houses have a problem. I think the guy who made the sound proofing code was deaf... In France we have a idiom for that, we say : ''The wall are made of paper". I think here it's the same.

My two musicians arrived on time, and I said '' take a seat, forget about me, play and go into your music world ." I never could have imagined the power of the cello and violin... I didn't know if my neighbors knew, but I'm sure they know now !!!

In two hours, I had become best friends or best enemies with my neighbors. that would depend on whether they loved classical music. Fortunately the musicians played magically. Perhaps if they had been beginners (or drummers), the story would have been different.

Godzilla vs the Thing

Known, in Japan by the name of "Mosura tai Gojira" and elsewhere by the name of " Mothra VS Godzilla", this movie features fairies, scientists and most importantly : a fight between a giant moth and a mutant dragon. This revered Japanese movie is a masterpiece ! You will love it... if you are Japanese.

My giant moth and mutant dragon are a hummingbird and a blue jay. When I was a child (it's a long time ago...) I saw on television a documentary about the hummingbird ; "oiseau-mouche" or colibri in french, (I don't know why, but a good friend of mine laughs at the french name... ''oiseau-mouche''.... It's not really funny but this guy is sometime a little strange I guess). So after this program I desperately hoped to see a hummingbird some day. When you are child, simple things make you happy, to day I need to be a lottery winnner to get the same high. This hummingbird is my Mothra...

When I arrived in Long Island, 18 month ago I saw a beautifull blue bird. My Godzilla. For the rest of the summer I hunted this beautifull bird (with a horrible screeching song... it can't have everythings, it's justice !). This bird loves to play hide and seek with my camera or if I spotted him he quickly flew into the distance.

Since the begining of last summer, I don't know why, but this bird became kinder and more sympathetic towards me. I was able to catch it in different poses. But even more exciting was the shooting of another species of blue jay during my last trip to California !

I don't know which bird is more intersting to me ? So it's my Mothra VS Godzilla.

Enjoy and if you have a recipe for one of those, send me an email (to understand this read my previous post ''The birds'').

PS : My stupid friend who laughed at ''oiseau-mouche'', gave me a compliment today. He saw one of my pictures, - a cactus, and said "Ho it's funny Charles, this picture looks like ''the Mac background plant''... So after ''Windows Vista Pictures'' (read my previous post)I should write a post on ''My future in the world of informartique ltd".

With that I'm sure to have a beautifull career as a photographer...

Humming bird

Blue jay from east coast

Blue jay from west coast

Legends of the fall

'' I took a picture of a wild beer...'' At this point my friends thought '' Ok, Charles has lost his mind, this guy is over the edge''...

Let's go back a few weeks. I was in California, (I will tell you about this journey in a another post,) but today I want to tell you about one part of my trip - Yosemite... If you are in California, it would be sad to miss this park with these sequoias, rivers, mountains, plains, blue jays, deer, and wild beer...

I took many pictures, but I am most proud of the one of the famous wild beer. Don't imagine a big bottle of Corona, Budweiser, or Heineken. Try to imagine me telling this, with my fabulous French accent,  '' a wild beer...'', but if you say it with an American accent it becomes, '' a wild bear !''

I was very exited to tell my  friends about this encounter, and you cannot imagine my confusion, when I saw the disbelief in their eyes. Nobody understood me ! At this time, I thought my friends wanted to buy me a shirt, with very long sleeves to attach around my back. The apogee of this moment, was when I impersonated the bear to clarify my explanation. The worst thing was, my mime was a cross between a mummy and a bear...

Now, when I greet one of my friends, when  he raises his hand to say ''Hi'', I don't know if he is saying ''Hi'' or mocking my famous impersonation of the bear...

I also met a deer and reindeer, but I did not do a mime for them. Just... nothing. I don't know how to mime the difference between these two animals.

Seriously, you must visit this park, and if you can visit during the fall, don't hesitate,

it's wonderful.

As one my friends said to me, if you go to Yosemite you can take a '' Windows Vista picture" ( I lost his phone number and his address after that comment)....

Wargame

Unfortunately this is not a game or a funny post. I noticed that my pictures have been ''stolen"...!!!

I have two options. The first is to freeze everything and not put new pictures on my website, or I could brand my pictures like a horse  to prove they are mine.

It's too sad ''to destroy'' a picture like that, but sometimes you have no choice. The worst part of this story is this ; I try to take the most beautiful pictures I can, and the people stealing my pictures used a ''print screen''. This is the best way for losing all the quality of an image.

Now, all my pictures will be like the one below.

I hope everybody understands my point.

"Lion King" or "Lyon King"

Paris, Paris, Paris.... When someone asks me where I come from, (in fact nobody asks me because with my accent everbody knows,) as an echo to my answer I hear a syrupy voice say...."Aaaaaaaahhhhhh Paris" and the person lets out a sigh... Perhaps "Paris" is orgasmic, who knows ? But you must know this, in Paris the streets are covered in dog droppings, the Parisians are rude, it's always rainy and cold, the sun is "persona non grata", and the Parisian soccer team is really crappy...

Ok I confess it's not true (except for the soccer team), but the non-french person must know one thing : Paris is not the only beautiful city in France.

I love Manosque and its mountains, Carcassone and its ''cassoulet'', Caen and its cheeses, St. Raphel and its Mediterranean sea, La Bourboule and its thermal hot springs, the Alps and its ski resorts, Paris and its.... its nothing! As a rule, I don't like Paris... But above all, I love Lyon.

Lyon is an amazing city : gastronomic capital of France, in the middle ages it was the crossroads for the merchants of Italy and Spain, it was a center of silk making... It's the city of Auguste and Louis Lumière, the inventors of photography and the cinema, Paul Bocuse the most famous chef in all the world, the Olympique Lyonnais the best soccer team in the world (ok perhaps I exaggerate a little, but this team has won the national league 7 time in a row), and many other things. The blog is too short to do justice to this city.

If the child of King François the first had not been assassinated in Lyon, the history could have been different and Lyon could be the capital of France today.

In Lyon you can see the evolution of the city. If you stand at the Fourviere Cathedral, the panorama of Lyon is before you. You can see the architecture of the city unfurl in a front of your eyes ; Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 19th century and now.

When I lived in Lyon, one on my friends, who is very knowledgeable about her city and its history, was my own personal tour guide. She showed me many "traboules", these are old corridors in a building between two streets. The silk makers used these corridors to cross the town quickly and to protect themselves and the silk from the rain. I must confess, sometime it' s a little scary. It's very easy to imagine a cut throat or a pickpocket hiding in a shadows. At this moment of my visit I asked myself if my friend was suicidal. But no, she is psychologist.... ha... that's a point. Perhaps she had a depressed patient just before our visit and now, life is too boring for her... I controlled myself and I tried to listen to what she was saying, the history, the legends (you must know, in the middle ages, one pope lost a big jewel in the old street, and nobody ever found it...), so I preferred listening to her rather than my imagination... This visit was perfect, if you are not a cardiac patient (between your imagination and the topography of the city), try it.

So, in conclusion, I encourage everybody to visit Lyon. You could visit Paris too (execpt if you like soccer, forget it) but come to this city. If you want, I can give you the phone number of my friend and perhaps, if you are lucky, you may survive her tour, and appreciate it. And if you are verrrrry lucky you could find the jewel and it would pay for your travel expenses (don't forget to tip the guide at the end of your trip).